tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203086432024-03-12T20:53:38.350-07:00The Domesticated PrimateSean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.comBlogger414125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-25146956538613767022010-01-14T09:49:00.001-08:002010-01-14T10:03:14.962-08:00Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://shareable.net/fckuploads/image/Books%202009/LifeInc_1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 313px; height: 491px;" src="http://shareable.net/fckuploads/image/Books%202009/LifeInc_1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Life-Inc-World-Became-Corporation/dp/1400066891">Life, Inc.</a> is an excellent book dealing with the problems of money and corporatism. Not that I would have expected anything less from Douglas Rushkoff. <br /><br />People, especially those that lack nuance, might think from reading the summary that this is going to be some "communist" screed or the like. Not the case at all. <br /><br />Highly suggested reading for those interested in a peek behind the curtain.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-69950086482974640572010-01-07T09:47:00.000-08:002010-01-07T09:56:58.132-08:00Eating Animals<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511ubaXomAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511ubaXomAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0316069906">Eating Animals</a> - what a great book. If you're vegetarian, vegan, or having second thoughts about being an omnivore, or even just thinking about reducing your meat intake...an interesting reflection on our weird relationship with animals.<br /><br />My favorite takeaway was the question he poses of two hypothetical people ordering lunch, and asking which is really the more sentimental: the person who orders based on what he/she LIKES to eat, or the person that makes a choice of conscience?<br /><br />Really lays bare the notion that veg*ns are the ones that are the (only) ones that appeal to emotions, or at least it did for me...I've never really bought into that notion anyway, but this sums it up nicely.<br /><br />I've never read anything by the author before - I only saw the movie <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Illuminated-Elijah-Wood/dp/B000DWMN2S/">Everything is Illuminated</a> - but I may have to look into reading more...Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-86398960203801004132009-11-19T07:09:00.000-08:002009-11-19T07:14:36.055-08:00Demolition of the Drexel ShaftSaw this on BoingBoing. This was something my dorm room overlooked in frosh year...R.I.P, Drexel Shaft.<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GzKJCVJHcbk&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GzKJCVJHcbk&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-14558516064998107782009-11-16T12:48:00.001-08:002009-11-16T12:51:00.027-08:00H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.hppodcraft.com/images/hplsmall.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 185px; height: 250px;" src="http://www.hppodcraft.com/images/hplsmall.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I'm really liking what I've heard so far on the <a href="http://www.hppodcraft.com/">H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast</a>.<br /><br />If only I had found it before Halloween...but ah well, there's always next year. Maybe I'll find some others, too - apparently there are some podcasts that read the stories, too. Could be interesting, especially with music/sound FX.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-1886436555738950202009-11-09T15:32:00.000-08:002009-11-09T15:34:55.305-08:00Max tipI don't like importing CDs with iTunes - it is really not all that flexible in that regard.<br /><br />Max is much better - however, it seems a lot of CDs are not in the MusicBrainz database.<br /><br />Unless...you submit the Disc ID first (requires signing up), search and find match for your album - which is probably entered - and THEN re-query.<br /><br />Ta-da! No more having to resort to falling back on iTunes lame import, or typing in titles into Max. Sweet.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-40415643951696705372009-09-15T13:39:00.000-07:002009-09-15T13:49:07.213-07:00The Most Selfish GenerationLoved this piece in Salon.com.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/09/10/medicare/index.html?source=rss&aim=/opinion/feature"><br />Old People to America: Drop Dead</a><br /><br /><blockquote>Meanwhile, according to the Urban Institute, up to 22,000 Americans are literally dropping dead each year due to lack of health insurance, and thousands more suffer through a lowered quality of life from failing to receive treatment for debilitating and chronic diseases.<br /><br />I’m 62 -- old enough to cash in my 401K, yet still too young for Medicare -- and, despite my advancing age, some might view this as just another infantile boomer rant. But I want to put in a word for the idea that the elderly among us are just plain selfish -- as is any group with health insurance that believes what’s good for them is threatened if made available to others.</blockquote><br /><br />Some of the comments are great.<br /><br />Of course, the astroturfing planners use this selfishness to maximum effect. While the "greatest generation" is being bussed into townhalls by FreedumbWorks to yell cogent aphorisms (such as: "NO!" and "BOO!" and "NO PUBLIC OPTION!" and "NO DEATH PANELS!!!") at people, what happens is that we have a battle between generations, while the class warfare - that no one is ever supposed mention, lest they be accused of conducting it themselves (classical projection crafted by the right-wing meme-masters) - rages on, and the elites are winning that class war, believe me.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-42190734996913115682009-09-13T15:47:00.000-07:002009-09-13T15:52:17.207-07:00New blogI've recently printed up some personal business cards (yeah, that sounds a bit like "military intelligence") and thought I'd put an address on there. So I thought I'd start up a new blog as a placeholder of sorts and put that on the card. <br /><br />This new blog focuses on Java and really, any programming-related nerdery, and you can find it at <a href="http://java-and-etc.blogspot.com/">http://java-and-etc.blogspot.com/</a>.<br /><br />That way, I can also separate any job/programming-related rambling from this blog of more general rambling, and I can point people that use my open-source projects at that new site, too.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-3806809384763017892009-08-31T16:47:00.000-07:002009-09-13T15:46:49.049-07:00Let The Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.moviemachine.nl/images/movies/let_the_right_one_in_ver3.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 509px; height: 755px;" src="http://www.moviemachine.nl/images/movies/let_the_right_one_in_ver3.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Well, this was a nice little gem to find. <br /><br /><br />Without giving anything away...this one is definitely not the average vampire flick.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-44129150432905421492009-08-25T08:55:00.001-07:002009-08-25T09:40:01.710-07:00The Holy Mountain<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ravagedhand.com/tfs/images/holymoun.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 280px; height: 170px;" src="http://www.ravagedhand.com/tfs/images/holymoun.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>I just finished watching <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_Mountain_%281973_film%29"><span style="font-style:italic;">The Holy Mountain</span></a>...my first Alejandro Jodorowsky movie. I've had his movies on my "to see" list for almost two decades now. It's just been that they've been so hard to find, or when one could find it - it wasn't on Region 1.<br /><br />Turns out the library has <span style="font-style:italic;">The Holy Mountain</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">El Topo</span>. I checked this one out first, and finally got around to finishing it today.<br /><br />I'm not going to say I understand 100% of it, but it's a true marvel to behold. Lots of alchemical/Kabbalistic/hermetic/Rosicrucian type of stuff in there, to be certain. I was totally blown away by trying to take it all in.<br /><br />And, as an American, I have to say I recoiled at all of the full frontal and some of the more violent imagery. Even so, it's not the usual run of the mill movie, and there is something to be said for that. I can see why it's a cult movie.<br /><br />Now, if I could just find that soundtrack....Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-18247227334066568502009-08-24T10:01:00.000-07:002009-08-25T09:03:50.946-07:00The Trap<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://homeyra.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/the-trap-curtis1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 380px; height: 305px;" src="http://homeyra.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/the-trap-curtis1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Finally finished watching all three parts of the documentary <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trap_%28television_documentary_series%29">The Trap</a></span>. Another great one from Adam Curtis, IMHO. If you haven't seen his others, specifically, the <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares">The Power of Nightmares</a></span>, drop everything you're doing and watch it on Google Video ASAP.<br /><br />In this one, he follows the ideas of negative liberty vs. positive liberty, and how the assumption that the first one is an inevitable worldwide outcome, and how the second one will always lead to tyranny is a "trap".<br /><br />Well, that's a very simplistic version of what he covers, but that's the basic summary. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Along the way, lots of oxes get gored, specifically, the still standard economic model (but under attack for years - from more vocal folks like Adbusters and Chomsky) of every human being a perfectly rational processor in some sort of perfect multicore processor we call the "market", and that markets are somehow the ultimate expression of democracy</span>.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-12019487444767233092009-08-15T09:43:00.000-07:002009-08-15T09:50:07.914-07:00NPR's All Songs Drops the MOTHERLOAD<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://media.npr.org/music/concerts/2009/darkwasthenight/darkwasthenight300gallery.jpg?t=1248635910"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://media.npr.org/music/concerts/2009/darkwasthenight/darkwasthenight300gallery.jpg?t=1248635910" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />If you like live music, you should sub to the <a href="http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510253">NPR Live Concerts from All Songs Considered podcast</a>.<br /><br />It's always been good, but recently, they dropped tons of content on there - mostly shows from the Newport Folk Festival. Insane amounts of music showed up in the feed. It's going to be weeks before I make my way through all this.<br /><br /><br />And....if you haven't heard this already, if you consider yourself a music-lover, you simply must go over and <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104655046">listen to the live <span style="font-style:italic;">Dark Was The Night</span> concert</a>. That is such a great show...Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-75320380176564094292009-08-13T09:17:00.000-07:002009-08-13T09:21:35.880-07:00iTunes...MehStill making the switch to OS X...I have a favorite app for Windoze that I liked for ripping/encoding called Easy CD Extractor. I rarely buy for-fee software, and like to stick to open source, but that was good enough IMHO to spring for.<br /><br />In any case...iTunes doesn't seem to give you control over the filenames of an "import". <br /><br />If there IS a way to do this, I guess I can live with iTunes as my ripper/encoder, but if not...that's a non-starter, and I need a better program for ripping/encoding. <br /><br />Songbird doesn't seem to have that ability (yet) and I don't see an add-on for it, either.<br /><br />Any suggestions for a good open source encoder/ripper for OS X?Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-61683779750818356012009-08-12T08:32:00.000-07:002009-08-12T08:51:43.884-07:00The Switch To OS XI finally broke down after all these years, and decided to get a MacBook Pro. The tipping point was being able to do iPhone development. <br /><br />It just came Tuesday, and I'm making the switch. <br /><br />Any techies out there that have suggestions on best of breed tools, definitely let me know. I'd also be interested in what sort of virtualizing others do.<br /><br />Currently seeking best of breed tools for:<br /><br />SFTP client.<br />Winamp style mp3 player. I'm using SongBird right now, but sometimes it seems bit overbearing. Why do so many apps insist on "importing" my library of songs? I just want to point at them and play them. I want to blame iTunes, but I'm not sure who kicked this off.<br />Best way to launch apps. Not sure what the out-of-the-box solution is to do it without using touchpad at all. I had a pretty good solution for Windows - putting stuff in start menu - and using key combos to start apps. Kludgey to set up, but nice once it's ready and once the paradigm is understood. I need something like this for OSX. I'm thinking I'm just a noob, and it provides one already.<br /><br />I'm also all ears when it comes to good books for making the switch. I'm still having some issues finding the right combo of keys, and doing things the OSX way.<br /><br />Finding a good way to lock the screen with a key combo was much more of a PITA than I would have expected - pretty disappointed that was so hard to figure out. Doing this in KDE or GNOME or Windows was much simpler. Apple could definitely do a better job than that - and no, the hotspot thing doesn't work for me.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-57095797940516035982009-07-14T20:59:00.000-07:002009-07-14T21:03:56.548-07:00Firefox 3.5 and DenverLibPlus and CheckFoxIf you are looking for updates for these, they are coming, I promise. They've been updated some time ago, and submitted to the Addons site, and are awaiting review. <br /><br />In the meantime, if you cannot wait...I suggest using the Nightly Tester Tools to force an install of them.<br /><br />I googled up <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-any-firefox-add-on-compatible-with-all-versions/">this tutorial</a> that explains how to do this...Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-71938017683676148992009-05-24T08:32:00.000-07:002009-05-24T08:40:58.277-07:00Reason #9,458 That Firefox Rules: LastFM Firefox ExtensionOkay, so I've been using <a href="http://pandora.com/">Pandora</a> long before I ever used <a href="http://www.last.fm/home">Last.FM</a>. But after finding <a href="http://www.last.fm/home">Last.FM</a>, I'd get sort of irritated that I wasn't getting the "credit" for listening to tracks on <a href="http://pandora.com/">Pandora</a>.<br /><br />Oh, and if you are even the slightest fan of music, and haven't heard of either site, well, what are you waiting for? ;)<br /><br />I never really bothered to look into solving this problem of not getting credit until recently, but I found an elegant one. Though there is at least one site that sets out to resolve this - you have to give your login info for <a href="http://www.last.fm/home">Last.fm</a> to it...and it didn't seem to work, at least not for me.<br /><br />Well, Firefox to the rescue! This plugin, <a href="http://code.yerblog.com/lastfm/">the LastFM Firefox Extension</a>, integrates with <a href="http://pandora.com/">Pandora</a> (and other sites) and sends info to <a href="http://www.last.fm/home">Last.Fm</a> for you.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-30288480731588088242009-05-02T08:21:00.000-07:002009-05-02T08:54:14.567-07:00Reagan - Trying To Counter The Myths<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Sold-World-Betrayal/dp/1568584105/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YYyeZIwrL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>All I can say is.....finally. There may be other books out there that try to set the record straight on Reagan, but I don't know if they are trying to do what <span style="font-style:italic;">The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America</span> does, and that is to try to use an understanding of just what a disaster Reagan was and use that information to understand why things are the way they are now, including, most especially, the economy, but also, the political climate.<br /><br />My only beef is that it wasn't about twice as long and didn't go into more detail.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-19455467544652978132009-04-29T20:10:00.000-07:002009-04-29T20:21:34.746-07:00Screenscraping HTML With TagSoup and XPathSo, long story short: we have something we are trying to use that doesn't work as advertised, and so I had to build a quick n' dirty tool I could use to query one of that app's pages for things and act on that. <br /><br />HOWEVER: that page is in, of course, HTML, and everyone that's worked in and around web development knows how well-formed that often is (HA!), even if the data I want is in an HTML table.<br /><br />I'd like to turn the page into a DOM (somewhat reliably - though it doesn't have to be perfect for my uses) and search it with XPath, etc.<br /><br />Turns out <a href="http://home.ccil.org/~cowan/XML/tagsoup/">TagSoup</a> seemed to come up in my searches, and I quickly found a way to use it to turn it into a DOM and pull out the bits I care about quite effortlessly with XPath.<br /><br />Kudos to the author of TagSoup, and thanks for <a href="http://www.jezuk.co.uk/cgi-bin/view/jez?id=2643">the TagSoup -> DOM writeup</a>. Check write up link for more info and the imports, but it really boils down to this:<br /><br /><blockquote>URL url = new URL(whatever);<br /> XMLReader reader = new Parser();<br /> reader.setFeature(Parser.namespacesFeature, false);<br /> reader.setFeature(Parser.namespacePrefixesFeature, false);<br /><br /> Transformer transformer = TransformerFactory.newInstance().newTransformer();<br /> <br /> DOMResult result = new DOMResult();<br /> transformer.transform(new SAXSource(reader, new InputSource(url.openStream())), <br /> result);<br /> <br /> // here we go - an DOM built from abitrary HTML<br /> return result.getNode();<br /></blockquote>Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-51996319227918812842009-04-26T16:19:00.000-07:002009-04-26T16:26:25.815-07:00Transcendent Man<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTI5MTEyMjM4OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDYwODc3MQ@@._V1._SX320_SY400_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTI5MTEyMjM4OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDYwODc3MQ@@._V1._SX320_SY400_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Prepare to evolve!<br /><br />Looks like <a href="http://www.kurzweilai.net/index.html?flash=1">Kurzweil</a>'s movie, Transcendent Man, started showing this weekend - unfortunately, the "worldwide" premier seems to be all in NYC, though. Sigh.<br /><br />Oh well, at least on <a href="http://www.transcendentman.com/">the site for the movie Transcendent Man</a>, you can sign up for upcoming dates in your neck of the woods, if you don't happen to live in the Big Apple.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-49914992892560408982009-04-25T08:02:00.000-07:002009-04-25T12:58:31.954-07:00Denver Has a Maker Group!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://makezine.com/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 640px; height: 251px;" src="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/danielfe/WindowsLiveWriter/VisualStudioExpressHappyOneYearAnniversa_D958/makeLogo_url5.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.denvermakers.org/">Denver now has a Makers group</a>! Its first meeting was this Thursday at <a href="http://www.clubworkshop.com/">Club Workshop</a>. The next one is tentatively May 21st. They are going to try for the third Thursday of the month.<br /><br />Turnout was HUGE, especially given this was the first meeting, and a little out of the way, even if right off of I-25 - i.e., not right in DTC, and not right downtown Denver. I got there right about 7, and parking lot for Club Workshop already appeared to be full, and people were parking on street or other parking lots.<br /><br />The topic was by John Maushammer, talking about his <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/12/homebrew-pong-watch.html">Pong Watch</a>. He gave an overview of how he decided on components - things like size, battery life, being rechargeable, the cpu, cost, etc...he detailed how he went about designing the watch case, how he first prototyped in wood, how he went from designing in CAD, and then having a sort of low-tech 3d printer (forget the brand - but it was something he got from Ebay and said was much like a Dremel, but hooked up to a computer) carve it out of the wood, then aluminum, (and later, plastic, I think, for the face of the watch) for him.<br /><br />He talked about how he created the board himself from a kit, how he sautered. He talked about how the instructions he needed barely fit in the thousand instructions the CPU permits. The code was in C, so you don't know ahead of time how many instructions that will result in. I forget the CPU type. In fact, I didn't have any way to take notes except by Blackberry, so all this is from memory.<br /><br />It was all very interesting. He of course brought in the pieces so people could come up and see them. The down side was that there was no PA system, so it was a bit hard to hear him at times, especially when people were coughing or talking. I had to leave early too - didn't stick around to mingle or take a look at all the things brought, since I just happened to be exhausted that day as it was.<br /><br />A bunch of <a href="http://www.dmsc.org/">Denver Mad Scientists</a> showed up, too. Since people were invited to also bring in their projects and/or talk about what they were working on, one of the Denver Mad Scientists talked about what they do. <a href="http://www.robotbattles.com/history.htm">They are known for many things, but the most famous is having the first robot battles</a>. They were also the first to have pumpkin guns on the Front Range.<br /><br />One guy jumped up and talked about his experiences with using a laser product to engrave wood. <a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/Build_A_Net_Gun/">Another jumped up to talk about his net gun</a>.<br /><br />Before the talks the folks from Club Workshop walked us through a short intro to what they do, and that sounds incredibly interesting, too. They offer all kinds of classes in all sorts of things. They even sound open to starting up classes based on interest. Someone during the meeting if anyone knows anything about patent lawyers, and the guy from Club Workshop (forget his name, but I think he owns it) asked if there was interest in a class on filing patents...<br /><br />And the classes sound very - get this - affordable, so if/when I'm ready to tackle some of these things, I know right where I'm going. I'd really like to learn to weld, and they offer that. They also offer a yearly membership, in which a few classes seem to be included.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-23872821711415932472009-04-21T19:13:00.000-07:002009-04-21T19:30:17.386-07:00PDFTK - The PDF Toolkit<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/sledgehammer.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 90px; height: 90px;" src="http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/sledgehammer.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a>I recently found that I wanted to split a very large PDF document into two smaller documents, and copy the table of contents, or at least the parts relevant to the second half, into the second document, too. That's so I wouldn't have to go looking back and forth between the two documents. You can imagine similar scenarios for an index, too - you may want to copy this to the first document.<br /><br />So, how does one do that? Well, I started searching around for open source tools, and at first my keywords didn't seem to be turning anything up fruitful. Add in "linux" to the search, and voila, I quickly came upon <a href="http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/">pdftk</a>.<br /><br />Splitting a file into two is a two step process. You first write the first part, by giving it a page range. Let's say your doc is 500 pages and you want to split it into two, 250 page, documents.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">pdftk orig.pdf cat 1-250 output part1.pdf</span><br /><br />Then you do the second part this way:<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">pdftk orig.pdf cat 251-500 output part2.pdf</span><br /><br />Now you have two documents. In my case, I wanted to add the contents to the second part, as well.<br /><br />I couldn't find a way to do that in one step - say by giving two page ranges - but I did just accomplish it by writing a temp file. Say the relevant parts I wanted to add to the part2.pdf were pages 10-20 of the orig doc. I would save those off this way:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">pdftk orig.pdf cat 10-20 output contents.pdf</span><br /><br />Then, I merged the contents.pdf and part2.pdf this way:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">pdftk contents.pdf part2.pdf cat output final-part2.pdf</span><br /><br />And I was done. Not bad, not bad at all.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-40309397269398123282009-04-19T12:22:00.000-07:002009-04-19T14:31:31.424-07:00Hacking Your Own PrinterThis week, the laser printer we have at home decided that it would no longer print - halfway through a 74 page document. The last 20 pages didn't come out. Argh. Send the last 20 pages again. Still nothing. Try a test page. Still nothing.<br /><br />Double check the lights on the panel and look up what they mean.<br /><br />So, the toner light has been on the laser printer we have at home here for....well, a long time. Now, the status light also went red, which means "I'm not printing; get a new cartridge".<br /><br />Which is weird, because the document looked just fine - even the last page. I shake up the toner cartridge, stick it back in. Still no go. <br /><br />Go online, price the toner replacement (this would be the first time - I've been using the cartridge that came with the printer.) at the local big box retailers. I see that I can get THREE of the high capacity replacements (7500 pages vs. 3500 pages) for less than one of the regular capacity at a local big box.<br /><br />So, I order some, but...would still like to print. Does the printer supply an override of some kind to let the USER and not the PRINTER decide when it's time to change the toner? <br /><br />So I google some, and find that a strategically-placed piece of electrical tape lets some people print 500-1000 more pages just fine with the same model. I take a look at the cartridge, and I can see what they are talking about, and after a bit of rummaging, I find some electrical tape at the house. A few seconds later the cartridge is back in, and the status light is no longer red!<br /><br />Clear out the printer queue, and voila, I have my complete document printed out.<br /><br />It's not that I'm poor, but I just abhor waste and inefficiency. 500-1000 more pages is substantial. This toner came with the printer and lasted a long time - but getting it to last even longer is just fine with me.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-6756298106234364042009-04-17T19:27:00.001-07:002009-04-17T19:36:03.411-07:00H+ Magazine<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.flickr.com/1/628911_8a81edcac3_m.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 240px;" src="http://static.flickr.com/1/628911_8a81edcac3_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />It looks like RU Sirius' podcasts went dark for a reason? Apparently, he's been working on big things: <a href="http://www.hplusmagazine.com/">h+ magazine</a>. <br /><br />Okay, what is h+ magazine, you ask? Well, it deals with transhumanism. And if you don't know what transhumanism/extropianism is, well....hm. Hard to explain that in a soundbite, at least for me. Probably best just to send you off to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism">the Wikipedia entry on transhumanism</a>.<br /><br />Maybe one way to sum it up, though, is this: fundies are still battling issues culturally that were settled scientifically 150 years ago (like evolution), and they are so busy fighting something that's already lost that they just have no idea what is in store for them.<br /><br />So far, it looks like H+ magazine is free in PDF form, and they have plans to generate a dead-tree version soon.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-61724724437284702462009-03-27T15:33:00.000-07:002009-03-27T16:51:28.053-07:00Over 101 Reasons NOT To Be a VeganOkay, this list is tongue-in-cheek. I'm not vegan, but I sure can identify with some on this list, since I'm vegetarian:<br /><br /><a href="http://sbvdesigns.com/veg/reasons.html">Over 101 Reasons Not To Be a Vegan</a><br /><br />I cannot tell you how many times I've been asked if I eat fish or chicken. I just don't understand this question. I really don't. <br /><br />I've even had one person insist that "some vegetarians" they know eat fish and chicken. Really? Who knew? I wonder why these same "some vegetarians" don't just throw pork and beef into the mix, too? I mean, while we're just ignoring commonly-accepted definitions of terms, why not?<br /><br />Some gems:<br /><br /><blockquote><br />67. People you eat out with get exasperated when you try to determine what exactly is in the food you are ordering. (If it were an allergy, it would be fine, but since it's a choice, it's weird.)<br /><br />69. You are tired of your vegetarian lifestyle being the big topic of conversation at EVERY business dinner you ever attend.<br /><br />71. When the neighbor found out you were vegetarian after inviting you to a barbecue, he now thinks it's funny to announce to you every time he's cooking some sort of steak, roast, lamb, or ribs for his family.<br /><br />92. The vegetarian option at the restaurant is a grilled cheese sandwich, grilled on the same grill they're grilling the burgers & steaks on.<br /><br />93. Relatives who bring Kentucky Fried Chicken over when I invite them over for a meal.<br /><br />94. Always having to answer "Why don't you eat meat?" In spite of all the reasons I could cite, the truth is that I just don't want to, and I shouldn't have to justify it every day of my life.<br /><br />95. Being told "You can pick the meat off." In exasperation, I once replied,"Well, for me that would be the same as if I crapped on your food and told you you could just pick it off. Would you?" <br /><br />98. I occasionally meet people who "used to be vegetarian" but "outgrew it" (ie. began to find it inconvenient).<br /><br />99. I've come to realize that just because someone claims to be a vegetarian doesn't mean that they actually are. They just eat a lot of vegetables, and somehow don't associate chicken and fish with "meat".<br /><br />118. Your employer has Chik-Fil-A cater lunch for everyone and can't understand why you didn't "just eat it this once" instead of taking a break to get real food. <br /><br />134. Because when you tell them you are a vegan in a hospital they will bring you turkey and say, "Some vegetarians eat turkey."<br /><br />137. Because you can't stand telling one more person that Jell-O is an animal product and having them say, "Oh no it's not."<br /></blockquote>Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-17859622820499159222009-03-23T17:01:00.001-07:002009-03-23T17:16:48.885-07:00The Corporate Abuse of Language: TeamIt's hardly any secret that corporations often act to subvert and/or completely change the meanings of some terms, at least as part of initiatives carried out via their PR efforts. These are usually aimed at targets <span style="font-style:italic;">outside</span> the corp, though.<br /><br />The ones I find most grating, though, are the ones that they inflict on the people within the corporation, and not those without. At least the PR stuff you can take measures to actively block - using spam filtering, ad blocking in your browser, and turning OFF your television. <br /><br />These are meant to target those within the corporation so that workers within the corporation internalize the nonsense being spewed, along with their position within the corporate structure. I'm almost 100% sure this is intentional.<br /><br />Unfortunately, I cannot just set up filtering for internal corporate memos.<br /><br />One of those efforts at subversion I find so, so insidious is the way corporations use the term "team". It's "team" this, and "teams" that. Teamwork, team player, blah blah blah...yadda yadda yadda - Goooo Team!<br /><br />The notion that teams exist within corporations is complete horseshit, and even a child can see through that. With all the constant barrage of internal PR, an adult sleepwalking through life will repeat this horseshit without any trace of irony however. Now that's education.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Real teams</span> would have members which all get compensated in the same way, or at least be conducted as a meritocracy. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Real teams</span> wouldn't allow the buddy system or nepotism to influence the way in which rewards are doled out. <br /><br />Instead, the "teams" within corporations often have people who even go so far as sabotaging the "team", while still getting rewarded just as much as, and often more than, people actually trying to do their jobs. <br /><br />The "teams" within corporations often keep net-negative performers, because of those very same reasons: who they know.<br /><br />And yet, you read the average intra-corporate memo, and it's team, team, team. The hypocrisy and abuse of language just sets my teeth on edge.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20308643.post-79986940593185414092009-02-22T10:18:00.000-08:002009-02-22T10:35:58.054-08:00The New Miro - And Building Feeds for YoutubeWell, a little while ago, <a href="http://www.getmiro.com/">Miro 2.0 made a big splash</a>. Of course, within a day or two, I downloaded it, especially because I read it was supposed to be less of a hog (the older one often made my laptop overheat and shutdown, but a lot of apps do that to my laptop, to be honest).<br /><br />Anyway, I installed it, and had a problem right away. It simply wouldn't run, and told me to check the log. I posted about it on their feedback site, and got a suggestion to try one of the nightly builds.<br /><br />I did so, and that one works. I like what I see so far. I like how the video can now be split off from the main screen - however, I don't like that the controls for the video stay with the main screen. Maybe there is an option to change this; I haven't looked yet. <br /><br />But here's one thing I found out how to do, and this is pretty cool: you can build your own RSS feeds via this site <a href="http://www.ubeek.com/youtube/">Ubeek.com</a>, and add them as a channel to Miro. I don't think this is a new feature of 2.0, per se, but still, pretty cool.<br /><br />Youtube needs to open things up to Miro and let it work directly with Miro, but in the long term, I wonder how viable Youtube will be, anyway, at least for the more knowledgeable digerati. <br /><br />They seem to be opting for the walled garden approach, and cranking up the censorship, and there are lots of alternatives to them, anyway. <br /><br />I still like searching for some documentaries on video.google.com, but, if given the choice, I'd much rather queue up things via something like Miro and watch them offline. I also want an app to start building up things I like and start recommending things, and do it in one place, and be agnostic to any one website, such as Youtube and/or video.google.com. Something like StumbleUpon, but instead of just for websites in general, to do it for videos (and maybe audio) in particular. <br /><br />It looks like Miro is starting down that path, but from what I can tell, it's for channels, not down to the video.Sean LeBlanchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08236335824241507974noreply@blogger.com2